Music helps me, I hope it helps you

My friend Kiki recorded this for me a few years ago at his house in Mazatlan. As you can see we ain't afraid to bellow out a song. Of all the things I've done it my life getting to where I finally like ' my sound ' has been the hardest. I'd tell you it's taken years of work but like they say....' when you do it what you love you never work a day in your life'. I've been lucky that way.

So with all of us sequestered in our homes I thought a few songs would help everybody's cabin fever. Here at Mile 14 we've been skiing and walking the river but there's still a lot of winter here. A side order of springtime will go a long ways to making social distancing a lot easier.

There we are, the 1st two people to be at Fall-in-Hole for the 2020 season. Alaska is an amazing place, within 5 or at the most 6 weeks we'll be boating on that river...but yesterday when we did our river walk it 20 degrees which was about as warm as it got all day.

A couple years ago me and MP almost got stomped by a moose when we got between her and her knew calf which we didn't see...so...the city if Soldotna wouldn't have put this up if it weren't serious. Ya gotta love Alaska. It's been a long winter for those moose.

Any of you that saw Clint Eastwood's ' The Mule ' well recognize this song. As the credits rolled Toby Keith sang us the secret.

I hope Blogger will give me enough room for one more, a Cody Jinks song I worked up. I'm going to sit down tonight and record a really cool song that I have now and then I'm working to find a way to get a video off of MP"s phone that she took of me and Diana and Jack playing live in Mazatlan....Stand by, I'll try to get more out soon.

We'll try one more....here's a bout 30 seconds of my friend Carl, that guy can play that ol Crafter guitar of mine. Next year we gotta work some stuff up together eh Carl ?

Well it looks like Blogger will give me more space so I just sat down and did a couple of the newest...If you think I got a Cody Jinks deal going you're right, his songwriting takes me to where I was when I discovered country music, personal. This song is short and is about how some of us. (me) seem to always anticipate the worst. Optimist say ' there's a light at the end of the tunnel'...pessimist say ' but what if that light at the end of the tunnel is a train ? 

I think that's about enough....but listen to these lyrics about life and the creative process....It seems to me that we learn the simplest things in the simplest ways and just don't recognize it until we have a volume of life's events to draw on....

In Control...

I know nobody needs my take on the current situation in the world, I can only tell you how and why we've made a few decisions. We were scheduled to end our season and fly home on March 26th and as the situation changed and I started to look around we decided to jump the jet early and got home this last Friday...Our last sunset at LaMarina was simply gorgeous and a reminder of what we're doing in life, me and MPeasy.

I'm really not the nervous type but as Mid March arrived a Canadian Air carrier canceled all flights to and from Mexico and many of our friends were left scrambling. Some developed the ' we'll be just fine here ' and others were frantic to get home. In my mind when still over two weeks from our scheduled flight I started thinking about the if's and buts and one day as I sat with friends at the Palapa at the entrance of our building a light went on for me.... I realized we needed to be in charge of our own lives and at LaMarina we are at the mercy of what might be the most dysfunctional Condo in Mazatlan. You see unlike other Condo building ours has a restaurant and bar that are open to the public as well as a terrace that hosts public yoga. So that day I saw people from outside the building walk by on their way to breakfast and they were close and someone sneezed and the light went on for me...our building will do nothing to help protect the people that in theory own it. Right now we have people we love there and I'm so concerned, one of my musical partners is there and they intend to wait it out in a building that didn't even put a jug of hand sanitizer  on the reception counter. I asked someone why and was told it's because it was all sold out....give me a *&^%$ break, with just a little effort the lotion can made and then made available just like me and MP did with alcohol and some aloe jell and some nice natural oils. ALL the open to the public places in the building should have been closed so people who live there could create a strategy of their own.  So, I changed our tickets to take charge of our lives as soon as possible and we got home Friday morning....here's me and MP in our natural environment, walking along the Kenai River. 

At Mile 14 self isolation is easy, duck soup as we used to say shooting pool . The only tough part for me is that this 14 day stint we're doing is...well.... I love people and you know me, I love to chat. So we'll be on the phone and we have excellent internet here ( unlike at LaMarina ...but that's another deal ) so keep looking at Mile 14 and I will post some songs and maybe video of life here, just last night in the middle of supper a moose walked under the eve of the house and put his nose to the slider to check us out...or maybe he was looking at the green potted plants on the other side.

So we come home to snow like we've not seen in at least 15 years...it's knee deep to a tall Irishman.  Within hours of getting home I can tell MP is pine ing away when looking at her snowed in greenhouses. There's no getting around it, I gotta fire up the snowblower so she can get in and get to doing her garden starts etc.....never min that I didn't put up fire wood before it left because  lately we have an inexhaustible supply of dead standing beetle kill trees to cut when ever we need...well, with this snow there's no way to get to them.

 I got a 25 year old MTD brand 'Gold Edition ' snowblower and even though it's only 5 horsepower that baby can do some work. I decided to see if I could get a trail down to the launch so we can not only cut trees but we just have to sauna and to use the sauna right I need to be able to take a bucket of water down on the 4 wheeler....this will give you and idea of what we're up against, I did about 1/2 of what needs to be done yesterday and when it warms up today I'll finish and we'll sauna tonight !

The town is so quiet. Yesterday morning we just had to walk and when we got to Redoubt Street ( where we used to live ) the view of the volcano and the alpenglow was amazing. MP and I reminisced about how it felt much like it did when the volcano erupted and shut the town down in the mid 80's...same feeling, no cars moving, Alaskan's hunkered down waiting for spring when things are always better.

 We got to the river walk and it's apparent that everyone is having a tough one. The river itself ice jammed at freeze up and the flows are impressive and once again did some $$$ damage to the boardwalk but not to bad. And when you see the moose have been ' bark stripping ' it means life ain't been a bowl of roses for them either. Generally they eat the tender shoots at ht e top of the Willow bushes. When the snow is this deep the moose are in the same predicament as me with our firewood supply, there might be plentiful browse but try getting to it. The moose take the easy way and that's why they're on the roads and eating the grass from under the eve of our house at Mile 14.

We hope everyone stays safe. For me being a guy who usually doesn't trust authority I have come to the obvious conclusion that in this situation there is only one thing to do and that's EXACTLY what the experts and public people tell us. For all of you that miss live sports like me....man oh man I had no idea how much a part of the American fabric that is... I will try and make this blog entertaining with some videos and maybe even do a Facebook watch event... I guess for me some of the good news is that the Seattle Mariners are still in contention 😎🐟🐠🎸🎸🎵🎵

Sicko

It's been a full week for me...down and out.  It started with a stuffed up nose than turned into a runny nose that turned into a high fever that turned into some lung issues and phlegm which turned into me not leaving the house for a week. I know what you're thinking and for what it's worth I read what Tom Hanks said about his symptoms when sick in Australia and they were identical to mine. So we're in a quandary. we're due to return to Mile 14 on the 25th and we could push that up a bit but If I had what I coulda had we should sit still until the 25th and risk not being able to get home....this is some serious adult stuff to deal with, away from home, maybe have to stay far from home and.....yikes, what to do ???? go fishin ?

I took this pic from the 9th floor this morning. It's a charter boat that ran out of gas headed into the harbor and got blown onto the rocks. 26 people aboard , 2 injuries and an embarrassed skipper.

I guess its the Mazatlan equivalent of this. 

It's time for us to exit stage left....to bad because we got bike week coming and last week was truck week and the fishing is....well it's time to get home if even if we do catch them two at a time here.

For a guy like me it's always cool to see something new. AND if it's something new musical well walla, double bonus. As we sat on the sea wall and watched the antique truck go by I heard a new sound and walked along until I found it. This guitar sounded something like Zydaco music must, it was kind of tinny and chimey sounding in a  cool way. The kid was tickled that I was tickled....

Here's a pic of MP's sister Cathy and husband Jim along with Bonnie and Mike from Missoula Montana. Her sister is leaving early and the other couple are staying until after the day we leave. I don't know what to do but a lot of people don't seem to concerned about it.... shut up about he carona... and enjoy the trucks eh ?

Heres a few truck and the kid that stole the show. Everyone loves the under dog.

Ya ever go to the roasted chicken stand ( two for 7 dollars, with tortillas ) and wonder why the customer before you left their shoes ? Well, we were puzzled and our pollo chef just laughed and says ' it's Mexico '.

If you've been thinking this blog post is a little rushed and jumbled it's well....I've been thinking as I type and for the last week I've only been thinking if getting better. So I think I'll sign off here and call Alaska Airlines. They have the seats we need on the 19th which would get us home 6 days early and still give me time to get completely over whatever it was I had.  We've got MP taking probiotics to stay strong and we'll just keep our fingers crossed here as usual...that plane travel is not stopped and nobody gets sicks and......jeez.....what a schamozzle....in the mean time enjoy these curves.

42

That's not just Jackie Robinson's number but is also the number of years I've been married to Mary Patricia Brown, as of today.

I don't know what it is ya do
but every time I'm holding you
I know what my heart is for
I'm the one to lean on
got to be strong
It ain't just about me anymore

So good bye to my blind immaturity
cause lovin you made a man of me
                                   Gary Allan

Thanks Gary, that's the story. You see after the events of July 27th 1973 I was kinda hard to deal with for a long time. I was in shock, maybe PTSD'd, maybe just reckless. I got mad and quit jobs, I got fired from jobs, sometimes I just wouldn't have a job, I was a jerk...she had every reason, every reason to quit and didn't. She saved my life.

I could tell you funny stories. How we made it to the Motel 6 42 years ago tonight and I got a role of quarters for the Magic fingers. Or how I lost her on the mountain at Bridger Bowl the next day or.....but ya know I think I'll tell you how I got love right.  Kids, that helps define love. You have this little baby thats never done a darn thing for anybody and you love them instantly and crazily. Then I used my own selfishness. I've always been this self contained guy who HAS to be good at things and I just work at them until I am....Well it was about 15 years into our marriage and I had debt service anxiety from buying the boat launch and I realized I just wasn't that good of a husband and MP was working two jobs ( three actually with raising the boys ) and I decided I'd just work on it, make my love grow. And the weirdest thing happened, I began to notice things differently and I noticed that she loved me differently and we made a pact....and now....

I'll just say this. I hope all of you that read this have the kind of love in your life that I do...and if you don't I hope you find it, create it and then save it...MP's saying is right out our front door where I clean my reels everyday,

How couldn't ya love someone who fishes ' her own way '

So thanks MP for my life with you, I love you.

Hey , hey , hey....don't be mad baby. You didn't think I was gonna get out of this Blog entry without SOME kind of joke did you ?

Somos America

We are America. Mmmmmm, with that as the Carnaval theme it  seemed like the USA part of America was kinda under represented except for us parade followers , I mean even Miss Barstow California wasn't even there like she'd been in the past. But I guess the emphasis was on Latin America and this wording rang through out.

To Victory and Freedom of the peoples of Latin America

And it was a very impressive float, I'd vote for the best.

We got there early so we could get a good place to sit on the seawall , MP's new knee as good as it works doesn't like to stand still. So we were early enough that we got to see the traditional pre parade parade of business floats. The Fresca guys had the bubble machine going pretty good but it didn't seem to bother the army.

We picked out a great place and as the crowd swelled and we were out of location options we see a banda looking for a home...yup, they sat up right next to us. Oh man, a cacophony of sound, my ears are ringing just like they did when I spent 2 hours in the front row of a Bachman Turner Overdrive concert. Now you know I'm a music guy but this was over the top. As the parade got closer more and more Banda's were looking for Real Estate to augment all the other bands from floats, crazy....here's our Tuba guy and Banda.

As I dwelled on our good fortune I started to see Tuba's everywhere....mmmm....it's like the Tuba capital of the world and I actually like the soft bass thumping of the instrument, it's that bugle that kinda gets to me....throw in a little banjo and you got the trifecta of obnoxious instruments. We even got imported Tuba guy from Culican.

After about an hour and a half I could sense they were running out of gas so at a short break I got the horn guys have a beer and then they were so awe struck by the float carrying Banda Recodo ( the most famous Banda in all of Mexico ) that they finally shut it down....amen...

The Bano's is big business during Carnaval. Most generally to get rid of your Pacifico it costs 10 peso and a short line at any of the water closets up and down the Malecon. We were on the ocean side and MP was the first with the urge so she went to a Mariscos restaurant down the stairs on the beach. Well, their price for the Banos was 20 peso but if you were a customer it was free so for a 15 peso Pacifico you were a customer and everyone was happy, especially MP.....she's feeling like she'd pulled off a business coup with that beer she's holding. So for helping us out Marisco's Fisherman, we'll see you soon, I promised to come back and drop some real lettuce for helping us out.

Here's a pic of the Queens float, no Miss Barstow ( I miss her ) but we had our own Queen of Sinaloa. One thing I really like is the way they always honor the past Queens, my pictures didn't turn out but I love the salute to the elders. I remember at an Alaska Board of Fish meeting years ago one of the more dufus Board members asked about what it takes to be an honored Elder...he said if you're older you're elder...I like that now that I'm an elder myself.

I hope all you Mile 14ers know about the Knights Templar. I'm finding out they were and are everywhere. Of course they were responsible for the buried Treasure on Oak Island and there's a rumor that Knights Templar artifacts were found by Apollo crews on the moon, that is if you believe the moon landings really happened. So I shouldn't have been surprised to see them sail right into Mazatlan Carnaval 2020. 

My favorite float was the dragoons. I don't know what the Game of Thrones has to do with the celebration of Latin America but I like it, makes sense to me. Amazing how intricate the work on these guys was, I'd love to buy him for the boat launch, be kinda cool to have him next to that 6 foot long salmon I got sitting on a tree stump.

My really favorite float even before my other favorite was Cuba, They had all the cool Cuba stuff, Baseball regalia, Rum and Cigars, dancers and a real, and I mean real 57 Chevy. The Chevy was a 2 door of course and it was all decorated in Cuba motif. The rumor was that it is powered by a Dodge slant 6 motor hooked to an Alison tranny with a Pontiac posi traction rear end.  The dashboard is Volkswagon and there's a Bose 400 watt speaker in the trunk....what a ride ! Hows about those daylight headlights, safety is no accident .

This float is coooool. I don't know what the message was so I'll just add my own....it's the bird of peace.

Here's a pic of our adventure crew....Ruben and Candace are great world travelers, no sniveling, adaptive and curious. And it doesn't hurt that Candace has pretty good Spanish. 

We are always impressed on how mellow and wonderful the Mexican people are. Banda blaring in your ear, no worries, kids standing on a 20 foot drop off seawall, no worries. We've never seen one problem at any of the 15 Parades we've gone to and for the first time we saw our first presumed criminal. They walked this guy handcuffed by us and even he was about the most courteous hand cuffed guy I've ever seen...those things always make me kinda mad, but not this guy.

As we walked out we ran into Green Woman and I really wanted my pic with her. But she was just to tired, she'd had her pic taken close to 400 times and she just couldn't go for anymore so maybe next year Green Woman....and thanks Mazatlan for a Wonderful Night !

mmmmm, hows about a ...I know, a fish story

Yesterday I went fishing for Bass at Lake Pichachos with my Friend Dan, who fishes harder than ANYONE I've ever met. People tell me that I'm a hard guy but compared to Dan ol guide #003 is a piker. He tells me he's always been that way whether it's with fishing or business or whatever...I'm just glad I never had to work carpentry for him.

So it's up at 3:30 and at the lake for sunrise. with all the hundred, maybe thousands of trips I've done the sun up at the dock is always my favorite part, anticipation and the mystery of it just sets on the water along with the morning fog.

Now the boat I've lived half of my life in is a 21' ft Alumaweld with a six foot beam and 32 inch sides. With the high thrust Yamaha 50 on it it will do a steady 15 mph....Dans Bass boat is a 16 ft. Tracker with 20 inch sides and a 6 ft beam and 115 horsepower of Mercury and she does a breath taking 50 mph...so, I don't have to tell ya that getting used to going that fast and sitting so close to the water is going to take a few trips. I got the giggles pretty good as we flew across the flat calm lake.

Years ago for conservation I made a deal with Bill Dance that I'd lay off the Bass if he'd lay off the Salmon. Well, after I caught the first one of the day and he jumped so well I have to say that I'm going to be chasing these guys more in the future, catch and release of course.

As you can see it's really early and I still have my windbreaker on from high speed commute to work. We did some jerk bait fishing , we threw some Texas rigs and even tried those Magnum Wiggle Warts that were Bass lures until we discovered that they drive salmon crazy. Then as the heat of the day came around we fish a deep drops offs on a cliff with Lizards that we pitched, it was the best fun but....it was getting hot. In this pic of the biggest for me of the day I had put my pants back on because my legs were frying...

Dan tells me he frequently fishes sun up to sundown and has a nap at mid day under a shade tree...in the boat of course. I tell him the boat has a motor on it so it can take you someplace with a bed for that nap. He says I'm whining, I say I know and then I offered to show him my boat operating skills on the way back to the boat launch, which we did about 2:00, I'd call that a full 8 hour day, Dan would call that missing a chance for a 100 Bass day which I guess we would have achieved if I hadn't had a pizza party to go to. Did I mention it was mucho caliente ? Here's the boat being cranked on by Jamie our new support system and hows about that temp on the mirror...About the time I snapped the pic of the temperature Dan told me I was driving him crazy with all the pictures and then he power chugged 3 bottles of water....mmmm.....now who's crazy ?

Nets....it seems like my fishing is haunted  by the guys who get the wheat while guys like us get the chafe. I watched this guy run his net and and he had no Talapia but did have 2 bass. The nets are everywhere, in some places all the way across a bay from point to point. I don't know how the Bass survive just as I often wondered how the salmon survive and I guess now with just a bit of history behind me I'd say that most often in the long run they don't. At one point I had my jerk bait tangled in the net and it was a real mess and then my buddy handed me a pair of scissors and tells me it happens all the time....man oh man, I got a weird pleasure out of using those scissors on a gill net.

Speaking of nets ( hows that for a segway into a new topic ? ) the Alaska Board of Fisheries is done with the every three year Cook Inlet meeting and after decades of ignoring the growth and needs of sport fishing we have finally made some progress. without explaining the details we have seen a reallocation of fish, away form the commercial guys to favor the sport and personal consumption users. It's fantastic and for all of you in Alaska who read Mile 14 thank you for keeping the faith and not giving up, we're moving forward finally.

And in the fishing Karma department here's a pic of my friend Tom Welle and his grandson Hunter that I took this morning. We've missed a year together so when they showed up we chatted as Tom got Hunter set up to fish. I went back to throwing and was a couple hundred feet down the beach and watch Tom finally walk to the water and make his first cast....AND....walla, he's onto something huge. I hustled up the beach with my gaff hook but wasn't really needed. I think it's the biggest Pargo I've ever seen surf landed, good things happen to good people, it's that simple.